Aldi's Android phone is a tough sell, even at £80

Following the debut of its own-brand Android tablet, budget supermarket chain Aldi has announced that it'll begin selling a smartphone from the same manufacturer this Thursday. Through its "Special buys" program, Aldi will offer up the Medion Life E4001 for £79.99 outright. What does that get you? Well, in a world where the Moto E exists, quite a bit less than you'd hope for...

The E4001 features an unnamed 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch WVGA (480x800) display, 4GB of internal storage (plus a 4GB microSD) and a 2-megapixel camera. The real kicker, though? It's running the almost three-year-old Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. And given that Medion isn't exactly a big name in the smartphone world, we wouldn't hold your breath for any updates anytime soon.

You don't necessarily expect much when you're paying just under £80 for a smartphone. But for just a little extra, Motorola's Moto E offers so much more it's not even funny — double the RAM, a faster CPU, a higher-resolution screen, a 5-megapixel camera, a bigger battery and the latest Android 4.4 KitKat with the promise of an upgrade to Android L when it's available. And the price difference is £5.

As is so often the case with budget Android gadgets, whether they're throwaway "craplets" or no-name phones like this, there's a much better experience to be had if you pay just a little bit more. And given the price difference compared to the Moto E, there's no reason anyone should spend £80 on this.